Zhaomin Ren

RFID-facilitated construction materials management (RFID-CMM) – A case study of water-supply project

Abstract Due to the complex and dynamic nature of the construction industry, construction materials management faces many unique challenges from material planning, ordering, receiving and storing, handling and distribution, site usage and monitoring. Poor materials management has been identified as a major source of low construction productivity, cost overrun and delays. Lack of active, accurate and integrated information flow from material planning, inventory, site use to monitoring and control is a major contributor to such problems. However, it is difficult to obtain such accurate information actively due to the nature of the industry, particularly for large or material intensive projects such as oil or water pipe-laying projects. This paper presents a Radio Frequency Identification system (RFID) facilitated construction material management system which is developed to tackle this problem. This latest technology helps project teams to collect material storage and usage information in an active and accurate way. Additionally, it facilitates the flow of information through the construction materials management process focusing on dynamic material planning, ordering and monitoring. The developed system is being implemented in a water-supply project.

Negotiation within a multi-agent system for the collaborative design of light industrial buildings

This paper is a review of intelligent agents with respect to their use within the Agent-Based Support for The Collaborative Design of Light Industrial Buildings (ADLIB) project. In the ADLIB project, the core objective is to develop a multi-agent system (MAS) framework for the representation of activities and processes involved in collaborative design of light industrial buildings. This includes the planning and fabrication of steel structural components. ADLIB intelligent agents are concerned with modelling action and knowledge in a collaborative environment. The design process that ADLIBs agents are trying to automate is the interaction and negotiation between specialist design team members. Each team member with a different area of expertise will be primarily concerned with his own area of interest. This paper starts with an introduction to intelligent agents. It then moves on to a discussion of agent classification systems and negotiation theories and their applications in MAS. The last section analyses the needs of agents within the ADLIB project. A negotiation protocol and strategy are then presented.

Negotiation in a multi-agent system for construction claims negotiation

Negotiation is an important approach for agents to co-operate and reach agreement in multiagent systems (MAS). Different negotiation theories and models have been deployed in a variety of applications. This paper is concerned with the applicability of these theories to the domain of agent-based construction claims negotiation. The peculiarities of this domain are highlighted and the approach adopted in the development of a multi-agent system for construction claims negotiation (MASCOT) described. Of particular interest is the integration of Zeuthens bargaining model with a Bayesian learning mechanism, which addresses the characeristics of the construction claims negotiation. Examples are presented to demonstrate the impact of various negotiation approaches on the conduct and outcome of construction claims negotiations.

The development of a multi-agent system for construction claims negotiation

Negotiation is an important stage in construction claims management process. Unfortunately, most construction claims negotiations are conducted inefficiently due to various reasons. The recent development of multi-agent systems provides an innovative approach to facilitating various negotiations. This research has developed a multi-agent system for construction claims negotiation (MASCOT) to resolve the inefficiency problem. This paper discusses the key points of the MASCOT model. Of particular interest is the computer implementation of the developed MASCOT model using the ZEUS agent building toolkit.

Collaborative project planning: A case study of seismic risk analysis using an e-engineering hub

Volatile partnerships are becoming popular and important in the global economy with the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the development of e-business and e-engineering. This requires a new generation of collaborative project planning tools to be built. The e-HUBs (e-engineering enabled by Holonomic and Universal Broker Services) project has conceived and developed a novel approach to e-engineering services. Focusing on project preparation and planning, the e-engineering hub facilitates the outsourcing of engineering services and the fast creation of a project plan that can be executed by engineering teams. This paper presents the e-Hub approach to collaborative project planning and illustrates the key concepts and benefits of this approach through a case study produced as a result of the project. The evaluation results are also discussed.

Electronic Contracting in the E-Engineering HUB

e-HUBs (URL1) is an ongoing research project partly funded by the European Commission, aiming to develop a web hosted e-engineering service (or “e-Hub”) which is able to facilitate the outsourcing of engineering services. A key issue for the success of the e-Hub is how to build a secured and reliable On-line Contracting System” (OCS). To build such an OCS, this paper studies several important aspects related to the legal and contractual issues in e-Hubs, which include: 1) how legal and contractual issues are addressed in general business e-hubs; 2) what are the requirements for the design of e-engineering OCS; and importantly 3) what could be learned from the OCS developed in the eLEGAL project.

The engineering services of a universal e-Engineering Hub: Application to the construction industry

Although various e-Hubs have been developed in recent years, most of them are designed to facilitate the business aspect of online collaboration. The universal collaborative engineering e-Hub developed within the EU research project e-HUBs (e-Engineering enabled by Holonomic and Universal Broker Services) provides engineering services to facilitate collaborative project planning based on a particularly designed functional architecture and supporting technologies. This engineering service is particularly important for big enterprises to outsource some of the services to Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). This paper first reviews the basic concept and the services provided by e-Hubs; then presents the engineering e-Hubs functional architecture, and discusses the engineering services supported by the functional architecture through a construction scenario.

Trust building for SMEs in B2B e-Markets - a case study of the SEEMseed project

The growth of Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Markets provides Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with a great opportunity to expand their business. However, SMEs are encountering many uncertainties and challenges in these new e-Business relationships. Trust building is strategically important for them to enter, develop and maintain e-Business relationships. This paper presents part of the research work on trust building for SMEs undertaken in the SEEMseed project (Study, Evaluate, and Explore in the Domain of the Single Electronic European Market). By investigating the general trust building mechanisms in business networks, inter-organizational relationships, e-Business, and among SMEs, this study develops a conceptual model for trust building in the SEEM (Single Electronic European Market), which forms a baseline for the trust building study in the SEEMseed project. Some of the initial findings of this study regarding the risks facing SMEs for trust building in the SEEM are also presented.